Lowell drug dealer receives a 12-year sentence

A Lowell man has been sentenced to 10 years in state prison plus two years in the house of correction for drug dealing after a judge determined he was a habitual offender, prosecutors said today.

Oscar Lopez, 62, was convicted Tuesday after a bench trial as a habitual offender on charges of possession with intent to distribute heroin and a drug violation in a school zone, prosecutors said.

Lopez was sentenced in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn, Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan’s office said in a statement.

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Lopez was deemed a habitual offender because he had previous convictions, the statement said. The state’s habitual offender law provides for the maximum sentence when a person is convicted of their third felony.

On July 5, 2012, Lowell police searched Lopez’s home and found more than a dozen small plastic bags containing a brown powdery substance, later determined to be heroin, in his toilet and kitchen. Police also found additional items that were consistent with the distribution and sale of illegal drugs. It is believed that Lopez and a co-defendant were packaging heroin for distribution when the police arrived, the statement said.

The co-defendant, Wanda Bracetty, 49, of Lowell, pleaded guilty to a charge of possession with intent to distribute heroin on May 28, and was sentenced to three years to three years and one day in state prison, the statement said.